CHARLOTTE – Quarterback Colin Kaepernick is typically an All-Pro at concealing any shred of his personality when surrounded by the media, but he was feeling giddy late Sunday afternoon.

As Anquan Boldin stood at the podium in a cramped interview room, Kaepernick hung among a horde of reporters and playfully shouted a question to his wide receiver about his pregame mentality. Then, after Boldin ceded the stage to his quarterback, a reported asked Boldin if he wanted to query Kaepernick.

After they connected just once in the first 26 minutes, Kaepernick turned to Boldin repeatedly and that made quite a difference in the 49ers’ 23-10 win over the Panthers in an NFC divisional-playoff game at Bank of America Stadium.

With the victory, the 49ers (14-4) advanced to the NFC Championship Game, where they will visit the Seahawks at 3:30 p.m. Sunday. The 49ers have lost their past two meetings in Seattle by a combined score of 71-16, but they haven’t had both Boldin and wide receiver Michael Crabtree together for those meetings.

A potentially big deal? Ask Carolina and its second-ranked defense.

On Sunday, the Panthers trained plenty of their focus on Crabtree (3 catches, 26 yards), who had eight catches for 125 yards in a wild-card win at Green Bay the previous week. However, that led to an eight-catch, 136-yard performance for Boldin, who played a key role on back-to-back game-shifting touchdown drives. Those marches turned a 10-6 second-quarter deficit into a 20-10 lead midway through the third quarter.

“They were trying to double Crab,” Boldin said. “Crab had a big game last week in Green Bay, so I guess they thought they were going to take him out of the game. That’s the good part about our offense. We have weapons all around. You try to take one guy out we still have two or three guys left.”

Trailing 10-6, Kaepernick turned to Boldin for completions of 12, 14 and 15 yards on an 80-yard drive capped by a one-yard touchdown toss to tight end Vernon Davis with five seconds left before halftime. On their first drive of the second half, Kaepernick flung a 45-yard toss to Boldin, who beat cornerback Captain Munnerlyn down the right sideline to Carolina’s two-yard line. Two plays later, Kaepernick scored on a four-yard run and the stage was all but set for a rematch in Seattle.

Jim Harbaugh has claimed Crabtree has the best hands he’s ever seen. So where do Boldin’s mitts rank, Jim?

“As good as anybody,” Harbaugh said, inspiring laughs for his diplomacy. “As good as anybody that’s ever played the game.”

The performance was the latest late-season star turn for Boldin, who has four 100-yard games in his last seven postseason contests. Boldin, who was acquired in a trade from the Super-Bowl-champion Ravens in the offseason, has won six straight playoff games – four on the road – in the past year.

Said safety Donte Whitner: “He’s one of the toughest guys on this football team. He’s on the toughest guys in the National Football League.”

Whitner said Boldin is tough enough to play defense, but the 49ers needed no assistance in that area as they allowed their fewest points in a playoff game since a 14-0 win over Philadelphia on Dec. 29, 1996, a span of 13 games. San Francisco held Carolina scoreless in the final 33 minutes and — before a 59-yard completion with 12 seconds left — limited the Panthers to 71 second-half yards.

In a 10-9 loss to Carolina in November, the 49ers limited Carolina to 250 yards.

“We felt we could do it again,” Whitner said. “We knew everything they were going to do. They’re a really good football team … but we were really on our game today and we really wanted to come in and enforce our will.”

The 49ers, who turned away the Panthers on 4th-and-goal at the 1-yard line and, later, a 3rd-and-goal at the 1 in second quarter, were headlined by a host of stars. Inside linebackers NaVorro Bowman and Patrick Willis combined for 22 tackles, a sack (by Bowman) and an interception (by Willis). Outside linebacker Ahmad Brooks had 2.5 sacks and Whitner’s fourth-quarter interception placed a period on the win.

“As the game goes on we wake up as a defense,” Bowman said. “We play even harder. We get stronger. I think we started understanding what they were doing later in the game.”

The 49ers might need a similar defensive performance in Seattle, where the Seahawks (14-3) have won 16 of their past 17 games. And the offense will need to awaken after its produced one touchdown in its past two visits to CenturyLink Field.

The heartening news for the 49ers is they’ll have both Crabtree and Boldin, the latter of whom didn’t give Kaepernick much of answer when asked about his pregame mentality in the interview room.

Boldin’s response: “Fight.”

As he strode to the podium, the typically tight-lipped quarterback laughed. Yet again, he was on the same page as his wide receiver.

Said Kaepernick, admiringly, of the one-word reply: “He answered like me.”